100 Days – Week of Color – Featured Quilt 4

Today’s featured quilt is an exquisite monochromatic quilt by Ellen Stallard that was entered in the Monochromatic Challenge for Project Modern.

January by Ellen Stallard

Monochromatic is all about one color and using tints, shades and tones of that color to make it sing. Using different values is a key to making an effective monochromatic quilt. We’ll talk more value tomorrow. Ellen tells us that she thought using a neutral for a monochromatic quilt would be a challenge. “My quilt is titled “January” which reflects the time of year when skies are gray and leaden and the color of the landscape is pretty flat.” Ellen accepted that challenge and did a beautiful job!

January (close up) by Ellen Stallard

Ellen’s thoughts on color:

“I typically lean toward using bright vibrant colors in my quilts. Most of them are a combination of solids and patterned fabrics, and I often like to include something unexpected or unpredictable.

Designing this monochromatic quilt was a personal challenge given my tendency to use bright colors. Although I often use gray as a neutral and background color, I had never tried to coordinate a number of grays together. It soon became apparent that all grays are not created equal. There are cool grays, warm grays, blue grays, green grays, grays that are more tan than gray, even pinkish grays. I tried to choose fabrics with enough variation in shade and tone to create movement and not appear flat. This quilt was fun to make and there might be another in the future as my stash of gray fabric is bountiful.”

More about Ellen:

“My aunt (now 83) taught me to quilt about eight years ago, and I still thank her for that memorable experience. I learned about the modern quilting movement in the summer of 2010 from my son’s friend who has been quilting since her college days and writes a blog (Nacho Mama’s Quilt). I think there is a relatively new Modern Quilt Guild chapter in Nashville, but since I live in the country forty miles out of town I have yet to check into it. I just have the Flickr link right now…I live vicariously through others’ blogs.” You can find Ellen and more of her quilts on Flickr as TNquilter.

6 thoughts on “100 Days – Week of Color – Featured Quilt 4”

Wow! And who thought gray was a dull colour! Have just started following & love the designs all you talented people are displaying – looking forward to lots of inspiration & then………finding the time to do it all!